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Important: Preamble before profits

Despite being a personal finance website and blog, I’ve hesitated to regularly provide specific earnings. Each time I’ve shared writing revenue — at 6 and 12 months — it’s taken me some time to deliberate whether I should. My revenue isn’t everything, and frankly, it’s been steadily declining since last summer. But while I made less revenue, I saw more traffic — the important metric to me.

Many personal finance blogs share their earnings on a regular, monthly basis with their readers. My fear in regularly doing so may come from an irrational place, but I worry that sharing this information is like eating junk food; the syrupy sweet taste goes down easily, but it has a vapid nutritional value. Last month, I decided to share those income stats and many readers liked seeing how the website was helping my financial goals. Hope these stats help in your own blogging/writing journey!

August 2014 — Blog income report

August was a rough month for earnings. Unfortunately, the continued slump and decline in earnings has not stopped. At one point in January and February of this year, I was making over $5000 per month from the site. Now, I’m lucky to be making over $500. It’s definitely changed how I budget for the future, and I wish there was something I could do to change the situation. Thankfully, my traffic continues to stay strong, along with social media growth. I crossed over 1,400 followers on Twitter, which is a tremendous milestone for me.

Here’s what my traffic stats looked like this month.

LinkOffers Affiliates $485 (Up $69 compared to last month)

Again, affiliate sales led for income. Buoyed by two credit cards, Barclaycard Arrival and US Airways, I saw a slight increase in earnings this month. Over the last few months, LinkOffers has steadily cut the commission on credit cards. Consequently, this is much of the reason why these numbers slumped since the beginning of the year. I have not been regularly advertising affiliate deals and links, which may also be contributing to the slide and stagnation of revenue. I have some work to do here.

Google AdSense $40.47 (Down $207 compared to last month)

Last month I had a hugely viral article that brought in hundreds of thousands of visitors. It was unreal. That spike in traffic artificially cause Google AdSense revenue to expand. Now, it’s back to more realistic values. This value tends to track around $50 per month. For August, I ended up moving an ad space to the beginning of articles to try to keep ads highly visible. Thus far, I’m not seeing any major revenue boost from this switch.

Amazon Associates $0.20 (Negligible change)

Somebody mentioned that Amazon’s Associates program may have taken a big dive due to the Smile program. This Amazon initiative encourages shoppers to choose a charity to support. By selecting one, a percentage of your purchases go to that charity. It’s a great program, but it looks like it may remove your referral link. This may be reducing any commission possibilities.

Forward-looking statements

Last month I mentioned that I’d like to begin reviewing books, films, and media that help diversify the conversation about personal finance. I decided to start with a super ambitious read called All the Presidents’ Bankers by Nomi Prins. I’m about halfway through this impressive tome of financial and banking history. Thus far, I’m loving it, and can’t wait to share it with you all! Likewise, I will be writing a review of a new documentary, Rich Hill. This film is about severe poverty in a small, midwestern town. Look forward to those soon.

As for revenue, I’m not working actively enough to change the financial situation each month. That’s something I need to work on. I’ll likely revamp and republish a couple articles on some of my favorite affiliate links.

Thanks for reading! If you’ve got questions, comments, or advice, I’d love to hear it below!

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To publish or not to publish, that is the question

I debated whether I should publish this article for two months. I talked to friends, family, acquaintances — all have given me different responses. I tweeted to fellow personal finance bloggers, too. Everyone had a different answer.

After much consternation, I decided I’d finally publish an answer to a big question I’ve been getting: “How much can bloggers make?” Or, more specifically sometimes: “How much did you make, Sam?”

Even as I type these words, I’m debating whether I’ll push the publish button. It’s really challenging to share this number. I’m proud and embarrassed in a weird way.

Well, here goes nothing! Today, I’m going to share with you how much I made over the first year of Frugaling, and what led to that success. My goal is to both inspire those who are thinking about starting a blog, but also to provide info about where the greatest revenue can be made. I know of quite a few people right now who want to get paid to write or need some push to start blogging.

This one’s for you.

A trickle became a torrent of funds

I started with Google AdSense

I began Frugaling on May 4, 2013. Motivated out of a desperate need to share my story with others and begin my journey back to zero debt, I wrote my first article. These first few months I only had Google AdSense. I stared at $15-20 a month and thought this was pointless, but that quickly doubled, and doubled again.

For those who’ve never heard of the platform, it’s an easy and very popular way to start making revenue. Google handles the advertisers — all you do is publish them. Easy as can be. Nobody becomes rich from AdSense, though (hardly anyone at least). It’s an entirely automated and algorithmic ad network that pairs relevant advertisements with consumers. While creepy sometimes, the ad network is the best in the industry — for everyone involved in the money making process.

I looked up affiliate opportunities

As a member of the personal finance blogging community, I was fortunate to be exposed to various money-making experts. Many had done well adding affiliate programs to their sites. Affiliate programs usually host a bunch of companies that are looking to give publishers a small commission for products sold. Let’s say you run an apparel website and link to Macy’s, you can count on a certain amount of revenue kicked back to you in the referral process. Or, if you blog, it can help to advertise your web host.

I decided to throw my hat in the ring and joined a top-notch network called LinkOffers. Two months after being approved to hawk some bank-affiliated products, I looked at my account and noticed a strange number: $500 in sales. It was early in the summer and the number shocked me. I was making ridiculous amounts of money! Over the ensuing months, I received an atmospheric amount of affiliate commissions (I’ll address monetary specifics in the proceeding section).

I partnered and linked to Amazon.com

I timed articles to important holidays, your recommended books, and/or tax season. Most bloggers seem to struggle to make much money with Amazon’s affiliate program. I found it to be incredible.

You can link to nearly everything in the Amazon store and make a commission on that item and anything else that’s purchased during that visit. This primary and secondary commission style is very generous. For instance, if someone buys the product you advertised and a new Macbook Air, get ready for a kickback of $40 or more. These purchases added up quickly. One article netted me over $200 in two months.

Flappy Bird-style wealth creation is definitely scary

Flappy Bird was a hugely popular, viral success. The creator was making $50,000 per day when he pulled it from the Apple App Store.

The Apple Store was slammed earlier this year with millions of downloads of one app with a ridiculously simple premise and name: Flappy Bird. The creator was a mysterious and private individual based in Vietnam. Not much was known about him until Rolling Stone magazine tracked him down and got one of the best interviews yet. Rolling Stone reported that:

By February, it was topping the charts in more than 100 countries and had been downloaded more than 50 million times. Nguyen was earning an estimated $50,000 a day. Not even Mark Zuckerberg became rich so fast.

This level of attention and wealth prompted Nguyen to take down the app and buck the demand for his work. Within a couple days of his decision to remove the app, it vanished. Many criticized his decision and questioned why anyone making $50k a day would optionally take down their application. Frankly, I could relate on a tenth of the scale.

In December, January, and February I saw earnings that blew my mind. Every day I checked my earnings, I was looking at another couple hundred dollars. I was closing in or crossing $5,000 per month. I was scared about whether the affiliate company would actually pay me. Every month — before I got paid — I’d get nervous. I’d think, “Are my earnings going to be revoked? Am I actually going to get paid that much?” Month after month would pass, and the earnings would clear — right into my bank account. It was like magic.

Average these earnings over 12 months, and I’d be making over $60,000 per year. Meanwhile, I’m a full-time graduate student working 65+ hours a week. With all my earnings combined (regular work, too), I was nearing a six-figure salary. My debt was disappearing and life was looking up in a crazy way.

The earnings eventually slowed. The bulk of the money was earned. I paid off a $25,000 student loan and stopped taking out loans for school entirely. Suddenly, I was paying in cash for the deficits in my graduate assistantship budget.

Marketing and advertising affects everyone

You’ve now read nearly the entirety of this article, but I still haven’t shared how much a blogger can make. Or, more specifically, how much I made in my first year. Before I say that value, I want to mention one thing: advertising tends to taint perspectives.

As a personal finance writer, there’s a wealth of advertising opportunities. It’s a direct consequence of the powerful financial services sector. Trillions of dollars are managed within financial companies, and consumer credit products are just one of the many revenue sources they have. It can be easy to be swept up with the possibilities and ignore the initial purpose for starting a blog.

I got swept up by it. I was deeply affected by it. It changed how I speak. It swayed my opinions.

After you see this value, I hope you take great care with your site and visitors. Please don’t let this inspire you to morph into a credit-card-hawking-affiliate-driven-market-maven. The personal finance world needs personality and reality. Credit products aren’t right for everyone.

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Where I Was

Tomorrow marks the 6-month anniversary of Frugaling.org! On May 4th, 2013, I finally wrote about my struggle with student loans and my hope for a better life – one without the worries of excessive debt. My debt sat at $37,719 and would be pushed over $40,000 with the fall semester’s loans. I was scared, and I wondered aloud, “Would the amount of debt I have prevent somebody or scare them away from a serious relationship or marriage? Could debt be so burdensome, if shared, that people just avoid it at all costs?”

Remarkably, I’ve been able to continue to churn through article after article, while maintaining one of the busiest graduate school semesters of my life. But I’ve been motivated by a pressing need to change the paradigm. I live a life where everything I enjoy is taxed at an artificial rate: 6.8% active interest.

Starting a website like this was almost comical. My friends, coworkers, and family members generally gave me a resounding “That’s nice” message. Most thought it was a waste of time. I appreciated their rejections and skepticism, while completely fighting against every concern. People thought I was crazy to be in grad school, writing about personal finance, and have the lofty goal of paying back debt while in the process.

There was definitely some skepticism to my excitement…

Where I Am

When I started, there were about 10-20 readers per day. It was safe to say my friends were taking pity on me and visiting to be nice. 6 months later, the site brings in 20 times that per day, and is consistently growing. Concerns over car/student loans, ways to save, and ideas about making more money have led to a site with growing popularity. Frugaling is about to cross the top 150,000 websites in the world and received about 83,000 visits in 6 months.

The excitement goes beyond website statistics. As I open up my Mint.com account and peek at my debt balance, I’m reassured by positive change. My debt load now sits at $34,179 – that’s a reduction of $3,000! I was able to pay back all the loans I took from this semester and pay back an extra $3,000 – in total it’s about $6,000.

By creating this site, I’ve been able to making serious amounts of advertising revenue – in the neighborhood of $10,000. I’ve shared this number with a couple of most closest friends and family members; suddenly, this is a serious living. Comically, I’ve never made more per month than the last 6 months. The money has been directed primarily to student loans and creating financial savings. I’ve grown more hopeful by the dollar, as I realize there’s an out – I can do this!

I feel like a lottery winner. Now, my monthly interest payments sit at $100 a month for the student loans. This is both manageable and something I’m ready to devour. Left and right, I’ve been paying my loan manager $500 to $1,000 at a clip. I’ve been paying so much money that the servicer sent an email reminding me that nothing was “due” yet. Little do they know that I want to pay off the active interest loans prior to graduation. If I fail, that’s okay – I’d rather fail trying.

Where I Am Going

I don’t want to lose my original intentions for starting this site, though. I created Frugaling to share my voice about personal finance, offer a reflective perspective, voice frequent opinions, help people tackle their debt, and encourage my readers to get frugal. For the next six months, I’m going to attempt to deliver the best content to my readers yet.

From experimental diets and budgets to new writers and perspectives, Frugaling is going to get a tremendous upgrade. By the year’s end I’d like to reach 500 Twitter followers, 100 Google+ followers, and write another 40-50 articles. Over the next couple months, I’m looking forward to cultivating some new contributors to the site and beginning to expand beyond my sole perspective.

When it comes to my debt, I intend to pay another $2,000 to $3,000 more by year’s end. Get ready NelNet (my loan servicer), some massive payments are coming. Oh, and on top of that, I won’t be needing any student loans next semester! The direction is changing, and I’m ready to catalog this entire experience for you. Please subscribe and share the site! Thank you for your support and encouragement.